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Published: April 22nd 2024
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Arrived in Sicily today flying into the Catania airport via Rome departing initially from Chicago. We had one hour for our plane transfer in Rome. We did a quick walk through the airport and through immigration to get our passports stamped. We made it to our gate with about 25 minutes to spare. We checked in and then took a shuttle bus to the plane. Both flights were uneventful. Chicago to Rome was about 9 hours and then Rome to Catania was just over one hour. We landed in Catania and headed for the baggage claim area. Our suitcases were not there. This was not unexpected due to the short transfer time in Rome. We made our way to the missing bag/lost and found area and after waiting for several other groups of passengers submitting claims. We submitted our paperwork and we were told that the bags would arrive in about 2 hours. Next we headed to the rental car area to get our car. We were given a Volkswagen Taigo. It was an "upgrade" one size up from what we had originally reserved. It is a very nice 4 door manual shifting vehicle. After a few minutes of driving Pedro
remembered how to drive the stick shift car. There were only a few stall outs and it was of course in some really nice roundabouts. Lots of roundabouts on the way to have lunch in Catania. Google maps was working wonderfully, but the small mom and pop restaurants were mostly not open because it was Sunday. After a nice lunch of paninis we headed back to the airport to claim our bags. The lost and found had both a front and back desk. One desk on the secure side in the baggage claim area and one on the unsecured side. I went to the unsecured side only to find out that the hours of the desk were from 9 am to 1 pm and then from 5 pm to 9 pm. It was 2 pm. The bags may have arrived on the flight in 2 hours, but we could not retrieve them because the desk was closed. We decided to drive to our hotel in Giardini Naxos. It is a really cute hotel on the main street going through town. Our room is on the third floor with a balcony. Across the road is a view of the Mediterranean Sea.
The elevator to the third floor is the smallest elevator we have used. We did fit in it with our 2 bags, but it was a bit of a squeeze and definitely not another bag or person was going to get into it. After our check in we decided to explore and headed to a store to find a converter for charging our phones. We then headed back to the airport to pick up our bags. The desk was open at the lost and found and after a bit of paperwork we retrieved our bags. We headed back to Giardini Naxos and had dinner at Lido Europa. It was a nice restaurant on the coast with typical fish and seafood, pasta and pizza. Dessert was a nice lemon treat served in the hollowed out lemon. It was a good day with sun and temperatures warmer than Wisconsin.
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